The Right Way Is Right

Joe Kuonen, president of Comfort Diagnostics and Solutions in Sherwood,Arkansas, didn’t want to be a contractor anymore. He wanted to be an energy guru.That’s why he abandoned his career as a remodeling contractor who specialized in the preservation of historic structures and started conducting energy ratings in 1984 for Energy Rated Homes of Arkansas. During the next decade, he mastered blower doors and house leakage, pressure pans and duct leakage. Not too many people wanted energy ratings, but customers called wanting to know what to do to get their homes to perform.Kuonen would come to their homes and conduct an energy rating. He often found major problems—problems that needed taking care of right away.The customers would look at him with big eyes, asking,“Who should we call?”Who indeed? To answer that question,Kuonen helped organize contractor trainings.The response was not phenomenal.A few HVAC contractors were persuaded to invest in blower doors and sell duct sealing services, but wouldn’t commit to delivering any reductions in energy use. “Get some balls here,”...